** I know it’s been a long time but I just didn’t feel right leaving you all 
hanging like that, especially with all the fan mail I’ve been getting, so 
here you go.  Oh yeah, this is my first attempt at writing in a LONG time so 
bear with me, I should get better with a little time.  Anyway, it’s not much 
but it’s all I got for now.  Let me know what you think.

	I somehow made it to my dorm and into bed.  But as tired as I was, I 
couldn’t fall asleep.  I just laid there staring at the ceiling thinking of 
Trish and how I was letting her down.  Then when I would finally get my mind 
off of Trish, I would start thinking about my glowing eyes, and how 
bloodthirsty I became when in a battle.

	It was nearly 6 hours later when I got a call from Henry Basil.  “Kur, I 
have some good news.  We’ve found Trish.”  Thank God.  “Where is she?”  “She 
is being held in an office complex on Mars.  One of my guys spotted her 
being escorted by armed guards into the building.”  I was so relieved just 
to know she was still alive, and that I knew where she was.  “But I am not 
going to lie to you Kur.  It will be hard getting her out of there.  There 
are guards all over that place ready to shoot you and her at the slightest 
provocation, and an AC attack against the building would ensure her death.  
I really have no idea how to get her out of there alive, but I do have my 
best guys working on it.”  “I’ll get her out, no matter what it takes man.”  
“I believe you would Kur.”

	I hung up the phone and went back to bed, falling asleep almost 
immediately.

	It was 3 days before my next match in the arena.  I spent my time training 
at the gym and looking over blue prints of the building Trish was being held 
in.  I was trying to find a way to sneak in, or disable the alarm system, 
anything that might help me rescue her.  I wasn’t having much luck with it.  
The only thing that looked even remotely like a way in was the ventilation 
system, but that would require getting on the roof of the building without 
being seen, witch was not an easy thing to do.

	Finally the day of my next arena match had arrived.  A transport carried 
Kong and me to the arena just like last time and I was escorted around by 
the “bumble bees” as the veteran Ravens called the guys in hover packs.  I 
was told my match was against a Raven named Carlos.  According to the 
information in the computer system, Carlos has lost more matches than any 
other C ranked Raven in history.  His AC was a complete disgrace, I was 
surprised that it even held together.  He had mismatched arms and his right 
leg had parts from at least three different manufacturers.  It looked like 
it was held together by the cheap brown spray paint that was carelessly 
thrown on.  All in all, it looked like a model toy that an impatient child 
had put together too fast.

	I was led to the elevator and got inside.  I could hear the announcer over 
the intercom introducing Carlos and his AC, Froggy.  “Jeez, what a stupid 
name.”  When the announcer started my introduction the elevator began 
lifting me into the arena entrance way.  By the time he was finished the 
large doors in front of me opened wide and I stepped out to find myself in 
the city stage arena.  The buildings were very close to each other, some 
times so close that Kong could barely squeeze through them sideways.  The 
crowd cheered me half heartedly as I made my way through the fake city.

	I was just coming around a corner when I saw Froggy out of the corner of my 
eye.  He was about a hundred yards away with his back to me.  I could have 
taken him out with one shot from my Sawa but I decided to toy with him a 
little bit.  I stepped out from behind the large building I was hiding 
behind and hit my over boost.  I shot forward and closed the gap in less 
than a second.  As I shot by him I used my Starlight blade and cut his right 
hand off on my way by.  As soon as I was in front of him I jumped up and 
then boosted left behind a taller building.  “Huh?  What the hell was that?” 
  It was Carlos over the COM system.  “Where did you go man?”  His AC began 
to turn around franticly to look for me.  Once he was facing in my direction 
I boosted out and right at him again.  This time he lowered a small rocket 
launcher over his left shoulder and fired a shot at me.  The rocket was 
poorly aimed and missed me wildly.  I quickly got right in front of him and 
kicked his feet backwards, causing him to begin falling forward.

Time began to slow and I could see the green glow of my eyes all over my 
cockpit.  I stepped back and used my right leg to kick Froggy square in the 
core and sent him flying upwards.  I jumped up as hard as I could and 
quickly passed the soaring AC.  I hit my over boost and sent my AC flying 
straight down towards Carlos.  As I came closer time slowed even more, and I 
lifted both hands over my head and brought them down hard over the back of 
Froggy's head, knocking it clean off and sending Froggy towards the ground.  
I hit my over boost again and launched myself to the ground about 50 feet 
from where Froggy was about to land.  I lifted my Karasawa and fired a 
single shot that bored a hole right through Froggy just before he landed.

	The match was over and I was the winner.  Time was flowing at its normal 
rate again and the crowd was going hysterical.  I made my way through the 
maze of buildings back to the exit of the arena and got inside the elevator. 
  I was just about to shut down combat mode on Kong when a voice came over 
the COM link.  “Great match Kur.  Simply amazing, even I didn’t know you 
could move that fast.”  “Who is this?”  “You know who this is, you just 
don’t know who I am yet.”  “What kind of fucked up riddle is that?  Just 
tell me who you are and what you want.”  I never got an answer.

	After collecting my money I went home and took a look at the recording of 
the match.  I had decided to record all of my battles with high-speed 
cameras so I could see more clearly what happens to me when my eyes start to 
glow.  I didn’t learn anything new about what is going on with me, but I did 
have the voice of that guy who talked to me in the elevator on the disk as 
well.  It was still pretty early for bed and I was starving because I hadn’t 
eaten yet so I walked down to a Jack in the Box near the Global Cortex and 
ate as much as I could stuff myself with.  By the time I was done eating it 
was pretty late at night and hardly anyone was on the streets as I began 
walking home.

	I was halfway to the Cortex when two guys grabbed me, one holding each arm. 
  A third guy got out of a limo parked near by and stood about 10 feet from 
me.  I tried to get away but the guys holding me were incredibly strong, so 
strong in fact that I could barely move my arms at all.  When I looked back, 
the third man was aiming a gun to my head when he finally spoke.  “Steph 
says hi.”  Then he pulled the trigger.  I could see the bullet coming at me, 
it was moving extremely slowly but I couldn’t get out of the way.  The guys 
holding my arms were just too strong.  And now that I thought about it, they 
were too strong, too strong to be human.  I looked back at the bullet, it 
was about five feet from me and seemed to begin moving slower and slower 
until it seemed to stop completely.  I thought time had just stopped or 
something but then I noticed everything else was moving at normal speed.  
The bullet fell to the ground a few inches from my feet with a dull thud.  
The man with the gun looked at the bullet and walked right up to me and 
placed the barrel between my eyes.  I saw him pull the trigger and time 
slowed again.  This time the gun flew out of the mans hand, and the bullet 
fell on my shoe.  “What is this guy bullet proof or something?”  That was 
what I was wondering to.

	I could see the guy was getting very frustrated with me as he pulled a 
small sword, almost like a wakasashi or something.  He ran towards me and 
thrust the blade at my stomach, trying to gut me in one blow.  I yelled as 
loud as I could and tried to move but I couldn’t, time slowed once again but 
this time the man went flying back like he was hit by a truck, landing all 
the way across the street.  I looked down to make sure I still had my 
intestines and noticed the concrete beneath me was heavily cracked and 
depressed a good 6 inches.  I looked to my left and the man holding my arm 
no longer had any skin.  All I saw was a structure of titanium alloy in the 
general shape of a human.  It was just as I thought, the two men holding my 
arms were some kind of robots, or androids.  The one on my right let go of 
me and then grabbed my head in both of its hands.  It was like I was in a 
vise or something, the android began to squeeze harder and harder until I 
thought I was going to pop.  I began to yell from the pain and I could see 
my eyes glowing green in my reflection on the head of the android that was 
about to crush my head like a little bug.

	Out of nowhere the android began to be crushed.  Its head was slowly being 
crushed as if someone were sucking the air out with a straw.  The rest of 
the android wasn’t in much better shape either, its arms had been torn off 
and were hovering in the air on either side of my head.  That was when I 
realized time had slowed again.  The android on my left was no longer 
holding my arm, but was flying through the air as well.  Time slowly 
returned to normal just as the androids landed 30 yards away.  I looked down 
at my arm and saw that I was standing in a three-foot deep crater in the 
concrete.  The ground began to groan and crack so I jumped out of the crater 
just as the bottom fell out and into the sewer.

	“What the hell is going on?!”  I was in a panic.  Things were just getting 
too damn weird for me now.  I turned and ran as fast as I could toward the 
Global Cortex dormitory.  I looked to my right and was stunned to see that I 
was out running the cars that were on the street next to me.  I was so 
stunned in fact that I ran right into a light post witch promptly fell over, 
almost hitting several people.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”  The world was 
spinning around me, I felt like I was about to pass out so I dropped to my 
knees and cradled my head in my hands.  I took all I had to keep conscious 
and calm myself down.  I looked up to see several people staring at me so I 
stood up and walked towards the dorm taking deep breaths the whole time.

	I finally made it to my room and got in the shower with the water running 
as cold as it would go.  I began to think about what had just happened and 
slowly but surely I began to piece it all together.  “What would cause a 
crater to form under me and crush an android like that?”  The only thing I 
could think of would be some time of concussive force that came from in my 
body and radiated out in a sphere.  But that couldn’t be… could it?  I mean, 
some strange stuff has been happening to me lately, but this was too much.  
Although it would explain why those bullets had stopped short of hitting me. 
  I had to figure this out.  I had to find Vincent.